Breaking down gender roles, one role at a time.

Shave Your Legs, Or The World Will Be Destroyed

This is a follow-up of sorts to the Mow the Lawn post because it’s the same company’s advert. I would’ve remained blissfully ignorant of it, but for Rhiannon Problematising Stuff linking back here. She pointed out several other blogs posting about this:

Now that is some hardcore shaming. Apparently a woman has to have perfectly smooth legs, or she shouldn’t bother getting out of bed. No going out in public, missy, until you’ve removed that stubble. Got the goosebumps immediately after a shave? SHAVE AGAIN. Shave until you’re bloody, if you have to. Because bleeding razor burn is better than stubble.

Apparently a woman has to have perfectly smooth legs, or she’s liable to cause a massive chain reaction resulting in a bus accident. Imagine what could happen if that unshaven woman was at the United Nations or in any major government office. Lawsa-mercy, she could inadvertently end the world!

Get thee shaved so we can all be saved.

(And don’t think I missed the fact that the camera went back several times to the woman being nearly flattened by a man, or that their position looked at least vaguely sexual.)

Huh. That’s really something else. It’s a wonder I don’t cause accidents all the time! I rarely bother to shave every day, even in the summer. And if you’re THAT worried about stubble, perhaps you just shouldn’t shave at all…

This is the first time I’ve actually seen the ad, but I’ve seen observations made on it before – one of them is that the woman is repeatedly trying to stop the boyfriend, if that’s what he’s meant to be, from touching her legs.

So the message becomes “be ready to satisfy anyone with a yen to use your body without your consent.”

Fourthwave, I rarely shave daily, either. It’s way too much work for one, and for another I try to conserve water by keeping my showers short. I’ll have one or two days a week I take a little extra time to shave and whatnot.

Nick, I totally didn’t even consider what started the whole ad off was the man insisting he have access to parts of his girlfriend’s body she didn’t want him to have access to. Big time yuck!

It also reinforces the idea that women have a responsibility to anticipate ways they might repulse people and protect the general public from coming in contact with that source of repulsion.

Meanwhile, every neighborhood in the US has a least one flabby guy who waters the lawn in nothing but Bermuda shorts, black knee socks and sandals, profoundly oblivious to the way the tufts of graying hair on his shoulders look revoltingly like a second set of armpits. And we all know we have no right to expect him to realize no one wants to see that, and he should either cover up his shame or stay indoors before we lose our lunch.

I almost get the point of this ad. Stubble is unpleasent, when you’re going against the grain–whether it’s leg stubble or upper-lip- and chin-stubble. I get that. It’s why men’s razors are so badass, with their 13 blades apiece and charged turbonium isotopes and all that.

But why is women’s stubble a public-safety concern and men’s stubble merely an indicator of future smooches (or lack there of)?

That guy is an ICON and an example to us all in fighting back against social standards of our bodies.

Well… if he were at all self-aware, I might buy that.

It’s why men’s razors are so badass, with their 13 blades apiece and charged turbonium isotopes and all that.

Rambo Razor sneaks up on your enemy hair and takes it out with one flick of the blade!

But why is women’s stubble a public-safety concern and men’s stubble merely an indicator of future smooches (or lack there of)?

Because everything about women is up for public scrutiny and shaming. Men – at least white ones – sometimes enjoy this thing called privacy, in which they are entitled not to be examined by every passing stranger who’s bored or horny. Or so I’ve heard! It’s pretty wacky stuff!

Men – at least white ones – sometimes enjoy this thing called privacy, in which they are entitled not to be examined by every passing stranger who’s bored or horny. Or so I’ve heard! It’s pretty wacky stuff!

You mean they can walk around in public without being judged by random strangers? That’s too weird. How do they regulate their appearance if not by glances and remarks they overhear?

Wull, yah – if you’re a passing stranger and you’re not a str8 guy, you have no *business* being bored or horny. How DARE you be female and sexually active, even mentally? Slut! Shame upon you for thinking about what some man might be like with his clothes off, you’re going to hell for sure – *and* an unnatural creature, mentally ill, a nymphomaniac according to all the old pre-Vatican II “Spiritual Health Manuals for Teens” that my mother gave me. And if you’re male-but-gay, that’s even worse! You should not even exist, let alone be checkin’ out the chicks cocks…

And likewise, women shouldn’t be *bored* – because that means you’re not fully mentally occupied with the duty of Being Attractive To Straight Dudes (But Not TOO Attractive), and that’s wrong and a sinful waste of your time and energy. I’m not supposed to, frex, be sitting in a coffeeshop chilling out waiting for the bus and notice that the guy going by has nice calves but a hideous haircut, or that the man buying his latte just now has very fine hands but an unpleasant smirk that is a total turnoff and enough Axe to stun an ox (or that the woman at the next table is straight out of an art book, either…)

I almost get the point of this ad. Stubble is unpleasent, when you’re going against the grain–whether it’s leg stubble or upper-lip- and chin-stubble. I get that. It’s why men’s razors are so badass, with their 13 blades apiece and charged turbonium isotopes and all that.

Well, yes, but the question remains: why did the man insist on continuing his pursuit of getting his hands on the woman’s stubbly legs when she was clearly trying to prevent it.

Dude’s boundary issues are what really caused that bus wreck, not unshaven legs.

I realise I’m in the minority here, but I don’t see the ad as man going “Ugh, me want” and the woman desperately trying to push him off her. To me it looks more like the boyfriend is after a PDA, she’s saying no, but not firmly–notice her smiling?–and he thinks she’s joking/playing hard-to-get. I’ve done the same thing with my bf who knows how many times.

I realise I’m in the minority here, but I don’t see the ad as man going “Ugh, me want” and the woman desperately trying to push him off her. To me it looks more like the boyfriend is after a PDA, she’s saying no, but not firmly–notice her smiling?–and he thinks she’s joking/playing hard-to-get.

I honestly don’t think anyone was implying it was him assaulting her or that it was anything more than what you describe. HOWEVER playful the interaction is, though, the point remains the same: she is trying to halt his attempts to touch her legs and he refuses to see acknowledge this cue.

Her “mixed signals” are not an excuse for him to keep on keepin’ on, when one of those signals is to repeatedly rebuff his advances.

Meanwhile, every neighborhood in the US has a least one flabby guy who waters the lawn in nothing but Bermuda shorts, black knee socks and sandals, profoundly oblivious to the way the tufts of graying hair on his shoulders look revoltingly like a second set of armpits. And we all know we have no right to expect him to realize no one wants to see that, and he should either cover up his shame or stay indoors before we lose our lunch.

Well said.

As for the commercial, it annoys me just as much as one that I saw a few weeks ago, which was directed at men. I don’t remember what brand of razor they were pimping, but the message was “no woman wants to kiss a piece of sandpaper”. It made me so angry I couldn’t see straight. Not only was I mad because they were attempting to speak for all women, but I was upset because I LOVE stubble. I have a huge fetish for the five-o-clock shadow. The way it feels against my skin drives me crazy.

Once again, I’m almost as appalled by the lousiness of the commercial as by the ethical problems. The editing is so confusing and slapdash, it’s impossible to clearly follow the chain reaction they’re making so much of.

I haven’t shaved since age 15, when I tried it twice and decided that my mother and peers at school were all brain-washed and deluded, so I can’t really comment on the bus crash ad, since I have no idea how women who shave would feel. I actually found it rather funny. But then I’m really a gay man with boobs.

I’m also bra-free, makeup-free, tweezer-free, and, more recently, shoe-free. It’s really funny how people react to some of these.